A Simple Six: Buns on Bikes 2011

Huntington, WV celebrates the hotdog with a festival. I know it fits the stereotype, doesn't it? I have successfully avoided most festivals in town, but today we joined the Buns on Bikes benefit ride for the children's hospital. All six of us.

Buns on Bikes group riders and escorts.

Early Morning Market CommuteI woke up early to meet my friend R at her house and coax her on to a bike to get some veggies at the farmer's market in Central City. She says she hasn't ridden in about 10 years. I hadn't ridden in 10 years prior to March 2011. We were each in good company. She rode slow and caution. Again, we took PATH the whole way. The market is actually on the route, which is another great downtown convenience.

Central City Farmer's Market.

R with our bikes. She rode mine on the left while I road her husband's.

The market at 9am.

WV peaches.

I strapped my eggplants to the rack. Bungy cords are so nifty.

A Full RideWe filled our canvas bags with goodies and returned her to her house and me to mine. My family was waiting on me. We had a big day ahead us. The first stop was Ritter Park for a watershed conservation exhibit. We had reserved a spot at the rain barrel making workshop which included a free barrel with all the accessories. We made our trek over uneventful. While Brent was casually listening to the demonstration, the children were either biking the inner park loop or learning about duck boxes or bee keeping. I trickled about between it all.

The rain barrel workshop.

Our makeshift bike rack, Oliver and Brent.

Elliot was riding the inner loop.

There were many of our friends at the park. One of them offered to take our barrel to our house, so we set off for Harris River Front park to help a group of volunteers weed flower containers and deadhead roses. The task was quick, as so many people had been working on keeping up the gardens already. We then headed in to town for lunch and ended up at Jimmy John's.

There were few enough cars that we took the road on the way into town.

Volunteers at HRFP.

The Ohio River.

A helmet sandwich.

The Charity Ride
After a light lunch, we finally made it to the Hotdog Festival at Pullman Square. We took our place in the corral and went on the 3 mile benefit ride with about 30 other folks including a police escort.

Bike corral at the Hotdog Festival.

How We Spent the Remainder of the Day
We managed to fit in so many things in to our afternoon down town, I will spare you all the details. In short, after the ride we went to the game shop, the comic book store and out for a late lunch early dinner at Jim's Spaghetti. This dinner has long been on my list of things to do downtown and we finally made it. After we paid at Jim's we headed straight home to collapse in front of our screens and under fast running fans and a non stop A/C system. The thermometer read 96 degrees and it was 4pm. We were spent. I think everyone will sleep well tonight.